When I was first introduced to the PICC concept I almost passed out, for the thought that they wanted, not just to puncture an vein to allow fluid in, but to insert something that would run along a vein, into a bigger one and end deep in my body between my heart and throat filled my with utter horror. Continue reading
Category Archives: serious stuff
a talent for lump production; what will HR make of that?
It is a while since I have blogged here. Neglect has been due to so many other things going on in my life and this blog has been one of the things that has regularly fallen off the end of each day’s to do list as demands on my time arrive from all directions, not least the need to interact with the Wonder of Wokingham, but also chasing and winning, or otherwise, opportunities to earn a crust. Continue reading
Filed under about me, serious stuff
Letters to the Editor – #levensoninquiry
Sir
Let me see if I have this right; I, as a taxpayer and someone who has had the good sense to change the PIN on my voicemail, an action helpfully suggested in the instructions for every mobile phone that I had had use of, am having to fund this appalling waste of money that we have in the Levenson Inquiry while various assorted public figures and so called celebreties who were stupid enough not to change their PIN are able to both waste my tax money and get compensated for their stupidity and negligence.
Somehow something seems badly wrong in this world.
Yours etc
Diusgusted of Dorcan
how much longer can soccer keep spending millions?
The other week Patrick Collins wrote in the Mail on Sunday about football risking losing a generation of fans. His point was about the ridiculous situation of having all seated stadia and allowing people to stand, citing the problem of paying a fortune for seats for your kids only for them not to be able to see anything but the person in fronts back and therefore not being interested enough to want to follow the game. I agree with the issue of making grounds have seats and allowing people to stand; I’ve written on that subject more than once, but will it cost the game a generation? I’m not sure. Continue reading
Filed under serious stuff
Alec Baldwin and the elegance of air travel
I wrote here the other week about falling standards in passenger appearance at airports. Since then we have seen Alec Baldwin respond to being taken off an American Airlines flight for failing to comply with the directions of the cabin crew. Continue reading
Filed under america, random rants, serious stuff
A letter from the House of Commons – short lived joy
The post thudded onto the doormat on Saturday. In amongst the white enveloped demands for money was a brown one; HMRC I thought, but no, House of Commons.
Bearing in mind the feedback and interest that I’ve had in some of my thoughts on the recent riots could DC have recognised my worth as an advisor and was summoning me over for a chat and to seek my help?
Unfortunately not. A few weeks ago I sent a briefing note to my MP in advance of a Commons debate in the hopes that it might have helped inform him on the subject. I got an Out of Office response to my email and nothing further. With recent events having, rightly, taken precedence over the subject that I had written to him about I had forgotten the matter, at least as far as Parliament was concerned.
But no. This was the subject of the letter, and so I sat down to read with interest. Having taken the trouble to write a carefully worded briefing for him I thought that there might be news of the debate. Once again, but no. The response expressed sympathy for me regarding the issue, and went on to suggest things that I could do to help myself in this matter.
Maybe fair enough on face value, but one of the central issues of the debate was the failure of a government appointed body to adequately deal with an issue in the area that it was suppsed to police, and to have also failed to follow up effcetively having allowed the problem to occur in the first place.
Part of my briefing covered this failure, so to recieve a piece of advice that included asking this agency to assist when it should have been clear that I already had done and that it had failed me (amongst others) is not impressive.
Quite frankly I would rather be ignored than patronised. And I voted for this bloke. Mea culpa?
Filed under random rants, serious stuff
an attitude to death
A couple of readers have question my attitude to death in the wake of recent posts. It is a simple one; we are going to die and we know that it will come to us at some point, so why not just accept it as being a truth and get on with living?
I first encountered death aged about 13. My grandparents were all long gone and the first body that I saw was not anyone that I knew, but there they were. Within months I tripped over the grim reaper again when I witnessed a road accident and one of the victims died despite the efforts of myself and others to save them. Since then I have seen others die in accidents, lost both parents and other relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintences to a point where I have lost count. Maybe that toll has hardened me, but I think that it may be more that I have become used to death. It hasn’t diminished in its impact, but I have learned to cope perhaps?
My own end will come some day. I have come close more than once and realised some years back that, whilst I enjoy experienceing things in life, the last experience that I will have is that of dying. On that basis, when it comes, I will do my best to enjoy that too.
My belief is that when you die you are dead. There is no afterlife in my world, no heaven or hell, it’s just over and I will be gone. And so I will make the best of what time I have here, trying not to abuse the world around me and its many life forms and helping where I can.
Our time to go is our time to go. It may seem too early to others (or too late to some), but it is our time.Do I get angry over some deaths? Yes I do, and when I do I try to do what I can to speak out, but not to rant because you can’t undo death so why waste the effort? Instead I would rather use reasoned argument to try and change things so that there is less risk for the future.
As for emotional response to death, if you want to wail and nash your teeth over it then that is your choice. I choose to honour the dead my way.
Filed under serious stuff
Thoughts on Polar Bear encounters and respect for the environment
It is sad to hear of the loss of a young man in the frozen wastes, and also of the loss of one of the world’s deadly predators, a polar bear. Both were out on paths that brought them together in a way that led to two deaths, and some injuries for others.
To go to somewhere like where the Eton party ventured is dangerous, and that is what makes it attractive. Where there is danger someone might die or get hurt, but no-one expects that it will be them. It is always somebody though, and if you are there then it might be you.
It is a shame that the boys and the bear had to meet, but I do hope that this encounter does not stop the opportunities for people to do dangerous things. They are worthwhile doing; risk is what takes us forward as a species, and to eliminate all risk will kill us off as a race sooner rather than later. As individuals we are all going to die anyway, it is just a question of when. Is it better to stay safe and then die as your organs fail through age or disease, or to die having an adventure?
I can’t answer that question for you, but I would much rather go to my end experiencing something than to just rot away.
As for the bear, well that was just out foraging, doing what it had to. It didn’t have a lot of choice, and when aromas drew it to the boy’s camp there was going to be a tragic outcome of some sorts.
In amongst the good stuff talked about preserving our environment there is a lot of twaddle spouted, and one of the things that some rampant wannabee greens lose sight of is that we are only one species on this planet. The other species are just as important as the ozone layer, fossil fuels, emmision levels and climate change. I am fairly outspoken against a lot of elf & safety (see above), but one risk assessment I am supportive of is on the environmental consequences of what we do.
Yes I am in favour of people taking risk and doing dangerous things, but only in terms of personal risk. If you are in a group and agree to take group riskd that is fine, but when it comes to doing things that put other things that have no choice about joining in at risk then no: If you are up a mountain don’t risk an avalanche, if you are in the forest don’t set the place on fire, if you are poking your nose in where there are creatures that might kill you…..
Our environment is now short of one bear and one human and I don’t think that that was necessary.
Filed under random rants, serious stuff, wildlife encounters
Lucy Snivelshed is dead – let her rest in peace
So Lucy Snivelshed is dead? I can’t say that I am especially interested in this news other than because it still rumbles on. Of course there are those that miss her dreadfully, and I can empathise with that; I have lost people I loved too. But is there not something of a whiff of profit in the air here once again?
We all know that anyone in an artistic field will have their work become more valuable posthumously, and to see that two of her albums are in the top 10 with a third top ten entry of, oh yes, a double album of the first two. I gather these days just someone looking at the album on Amazon counts towards sales, and you only need to sell about 5 to go platinum, but even so…
I have never deliberately listened to anything of the lady’s work, but I do recall my browsing amongst the CDs in the late lamented local Border’s store being made less pleasurable by the noise coming from the speakers above. When asked for about the fourth time “can I help you with anything?” I suggested that I might be more likely to buy something if they could turn off that dreadful racket. “But that’s Lucy Snivelshed” they said, adding “she’s won awards”.
Perhaps, but my personal pantheon of favourite lady singers features the likes of Nina Simone, Dionne Warwick, Doris Day, Dusty Springfield, Judith Durham and more. Maybe Lucy S did have talent, but my brief encounter with her work did nothing to suggest that I listen further, or to add her to those that grace my i-Pod.
Those that might have helped her defeat the trouble that surrounded her are now profiting from her demise. Fortunately she is now safe from the grasp of the demons that troubled her, and perhaps her squalid demise might save another soul from following the same path. If she is to be any sort of role model, that would, at least, add up to something.
Filed under fun stuff, Music, serious stuff
why are publishers so reluctant to pay up for content?
I’m in the process of having to take strong action against one publishing house and am actively chasing another for payment for articles that I have written for them and, in the former case, for several photos to accompany the article. Both articles have been published against agreed terms, so what is the problem with coughing up what is owed?
One problem is that it is taking me longer to chase them than it did to write the darn things in the first place, but I am going to keep going even if I end up taking them down the small claims route.
It is a shame as it takes away both the pleasure of having something published and any feeling of support for that publication, but such is life. There are a lot of shysters out there.
Filed under business life, random rants, serious stuff, writing
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 